Wednesday, July 6, 2016

NINO - beyond WYSIWYG

What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get was always an awkward acronym. Say "wizzywig" and people just look at you strangely. There is an amusing anecdote about the origin of the acronym on Wikipedia. I hope it's true:

The phrase "what you see is what you get," from which the acronym derives, was a catchphrase popularized by Flip Wilson's drag persona Geraldine, first appearing in September 1969, then regularly in the early '70s on The Flip Wilson Show. The phrase was a statement demanding acceptance of Geraldine's entire personality and appearance. wikipedia

NINO - Natural-In, Natural-Out

The idea, though, is powerful. Being able to see what the output of your work looks like as you edit is a tremendous relief to the mental burden of creation. It was a hot idea in the '80s and '90s, but it is equally important, and often ignored, today in 2016.

The main problem with WYSIWYG is it is only half the equation. How we put information into an app is equally important as how we get information back out. Just as we shouldn't have to perform mental gymnastics trying to anticipate how our final output will look, we shouldn't have to wade through a bewildering array of options to get our ideas into the app.

The best interfaces are the ones that get out of the way. You know an app is well designed when you completely forget the interface and instead can dedicate 100% of your mental energy towards your creation. These interfaces tend to have two things in common.

They visually get out of the way. There is less screen clutter to distract you.

Their feature-set is restrained. They avoid presenting you with too many options. Instead, they are carefully designed to have the bare minimum essential tools you need to create great stuff.

Comparison: Paper by FiftyThree - a NINO App

As of version 3, Paper by FiftyThree extended its excellent sketching app with note taking features. They introduce a brilliant set of natural gestures for formatting your notes that required zero screen clutter.

Comparison: Microsoft OneNote - a very Un-NINO App

By contrast, consider OneNote. It has a bewildering array of features, buttons, icons, widgets and text. My note in the screenshot below has a short title and one line of text. It is oppressively dominated by the rest of the interface.

Exocranium

Our devices, phones, tablets, computers, watches and more and more becoming extensions of our mind and body. I once heard a description of smart-phones, particularly with notes and productivity apps, as our exocranium. These devices and apps are becoming our brain outside our brain. The better the app, the more natural an extension of our mind and body. The better the app, the more natural its inputs and outputs - the more NINO it is.